Despite the Gaza bloodshed, Palestine’s football team is having the best year in its history

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas receives the Palestinian football team after it qualified for the Asian Cup earlier this year (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Palestine is in the middle of the greatest season in its football history.

In the latest FIFA world rankings, Palestine is rated the 85th best football team in the world, its highest ever position.

This puts it above sides such as Northern Ireland and the 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar, and just behind the Republic of Ireland and Australia.

And it is Australia where Palestinian football fans’ eyes will turn to at the beginning of next year, when the team plays in its first ever Asian Cup.

Held every four years since 1956, the tournament is the second oldest continental football championship and has been dominated by Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

But when its 16th edition kicks off in Australia in January 2015, the spotlight will be on underdogs Palestine, the only team making its debut in the competition.

They qualified back in May with a 1-0 victory over the Philippines in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup final in the Maldives – a free-kick by midfielder Ashraf Nu’man Al Fawaghra was enough to secure Palestine’s first ever piece of silverware.

In Australia, they are in a group containing defending champions Japan and 2007 winners Iraq. But to use the well-worn football cliché and say Palestine have been drawn in a ‘Group of Death’ would be a bad joke, an insult.

That momentous win back in May must seem like a lifetime ago. The blood spilled in Gaza in the past month or so makes football an irrelevance.

The famous quote from former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly that football is much more important than life and death is a load of nonsense – even the man who said it thought so.

The quote itself is accurate, but Shankly used it to express his regret at not spending enough time with his family.

The regret and anger and sadness emanating from Gaza is unimaginable – more than 2,000 people have been killed there since the Israeli offensive began on July 8 – yet football might be able to help.

‘Gazans are football crazy,’ said Bassil Mikdadi, editor of the Football Palestine blog. ‘Obviously, they have more pressing issues to deal with but I don’t think it has tempered their passion for the sport or the excitement of seeing Palestine playing in the Asian Cup.’

Football has not been left untouched by the recent violence – earlier this month, former Palestinian footballer Ahed Zaqout, 49, one of its most famous players, was killed after an Israeli bomb hit his apartment in Gaza.

Palestine’s football association has asked FIFA, which it joined in 1998, to impose sanctions on Israel, accusing it of hampering the game’s development there.

‘Due to the occupation, it is incredibly difficult to organise games and training camps in Palestine,’ said Mikdadi.

‘Israel’s occupation has presented the vast majority of challenges. They have barred player movement, preventing Gaza-based players from leaving the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, many Gazan players – who play in a separate Gaza league – have been barred from joining the national team because of the blockade on Gaza. This has been a blow for the national team because Gaza is the factory of Palestinian football.’

He said players from the West Bank Premier League will train in Palestine and then meet up with their overseas-based teammates in somewhere like Qatar or Jordan for training camps ahead of international games. Palestine has only played three official games at its home ground, the Faisal Al-Husseini Memorial Stadium in Al-Ram in the West Bank.

‘The national team has a nice mix of players from inside the Green Line, the West Bank, Gaza and the wider diaspora,’ said Mikdadi, 28, who lives and works in Dublin. ‘In that way, the national team is probably one of the most representative Palestinian institutions.’

He said the reaction to Palestine’s qualification for the Asian Cup was ‘pure euphoria’. He added: ‘Out of the 13 teams that had to go through qualifying for the Asian Cup, none celebrated as vociferously as Palestine did. It will be the country’s first time there but Palestine has a deep passion for the sport.

‘The encounter against Japan will be special and hopefully the team rises to the challenge. Japan is on another planet technically and tactically, but we do have the tools to frustrate them. Palestine’s strength is its defence and goalkeeper and Japan lacks a goal-scoring forward, so the ingredients are there for an upset. I’m not saying it will happen, but it is possible.

‘Palestinians are really happy because this seems like a culmination of 16 years of work – and fans had been waiting for actual success and not just a pat on the back for participating.’